Even the simplest luxury of calling loved ones during the holidays isn?t available to many troops serving in the Middle East.
So the Center for Learning Through Service at Anne Arundel Community College decided to change that by collecting 421 cell phones this holiday season for Cell Phones for Soldiers.
“One of the nice things we?re able to do is to give the phone cards to the soldiers from Baltimore,” said Bob Bergquist, president of Cell Phones for Soldiers, a nonprofit in Norwell, Mass.
The money from the recycled phones will pay for calling cards, which Cell Phones for Soldiers buys ahead of time in bulk quantities, he said.
Generally, the cards are sent to the soldiers within a month, which is just in time for Christmas, he said.
The college?s center, which promotes citizenship and learning through service by providing opportunities for students, faculty and staff members to help the community, collected the phones from about July to the end of November.
In addition, staff members also collected numerous chargers and batteries, said Kim Kimball, a program assistant with the center, which is part of the Paul S. Sarbanes Center for Public & Community Service at the college.
“I didn?t have any idea how many we?d get, but I didn?t expect in the hundreds,” she said.
This year, Cell Phones for Soldiers plans to send more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It?s pretty amazing ? it really tells a lot about the American public,” Bergquist said.
Each phone has an average value of $4 to $5, netting an average of 60 minutes of talk time on the prepaid cards once the phones are recycled and refurbished for cash to buy the cards, he said.
The donations of Baltimore-area residents will give about 421 soldiers an hour to talk to their loved ones, Bergquist said.
To help
Cell phones can be dropped off at any official Cell Phones For Soldiers drop-off site. The four Baltimore locations are:
» Angel Days Family Home Day Care: 926 Leeds Ave.
» Liberty Tax Service: 5225 Baltimore National Pike
» Simone Real Estate: 1310 Bedford Ave.
» Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 451: 6401 Beckley St.
